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The Book of Laurence - 16 -
- 16 -
II. The Revelation of Xavier
Describing in the words of his first true prophet how,
when, and where Larry revealed himself, how X-HB was
tested, and after much torment and self-doubt accepted
Larry as the one true Larry.
Truth be told, there is really not much to tell. I was reared in
a fundamentally irreligious home but imbued by my parents
with a strong sense like that of Santayana
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that the Universe
and God were much the same.
I was certainly aware that Existence is passing strange, and I
suppose my name itself left me unsatisfied to rely on poetry
to replace the religion that replaced the magic as both
Frederick Nietzsche and Iris Murdoch wished. So I buried
myself in studies both scientific and philosophic. Well into
middle-age, the pressures and pleasures of an active
academic career left me content to look no further.
As I approached retirement, and being reminded of the old
sobriquet that an atheist is nothing more than a seventy
year-old agnostic, I began to feel a spiritual itch. At first I put
it down to dyspepsia and an over-active bowel--due in large
part to my wife’s passion for fibre. But all medicaments,
potions and more dubious remedies did nothing but
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“My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods
fashioned by men in their own image to be servants of their human interests.” George Santayana
(1863-1952)
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